As the World Turns
by The Brass Clock
Summary: Harry receives a letter from the last person he'd expect, the night before Lily takes her first ride on the Hogwarts Express. Might continue, dunno yet.
1. Muggle Post

**Something I was just sort of thinkin' about the other day... Thought it'd be cute.**

**Title: As the World Turns  
Rating: PG  
Summary: Harry Potter receives a letter from the last person he expected to hear from, the evening before Lily takes her first ride on the Hogwarts Express. (Might continue, dunno yet.)**

**

* * *

**

Harry,

Been a bloody long time, hasn't it? I know we didn't exactly leave on hateful terms last time, but I don't expect you're pleased to hear from me. You're probably wondering how I know where you live. Well, time changes people, Potter. Mum and Dad sort of completely forgot your existence after that day you left, but I haven't. I mean, we never got along, it's true, I hated you for a long time; but after seeing you over the years coming back from that school, and the way you changed... Well, I still don't rightly like you very much at all, but I suppose I understand why you hated us just the same.

I mean, we weren't ever exactly kind to you, but like I said time changes people, you know. Kind of running off aren't I? Lemme explain.

After you saved me, when we were fifteen, from those... things. I started noticing you a bit differently. You had this look on you, like you were carrying this heavy weight or something. I don't know, but I saw you differently. I didn't hate you, after that, just sort of disliked you. But after that I sort of understood all of what you were going through, I mean... I only got a picture that day of what it was you were fighting, and I felt for you.

I should get to what I'm trying to get at, shouldn't I?

Anyway... I've got a family now, you can imagine. Lovely wife, son and daughter. It's my daughter I want to talk about, really. See, month or so ago, she got a letter. It was just like those letters they were shoving down our chimney. I always wanted to read one of those, but Dad wouldn't let me, so this time I did read it. She's been accepted at your school, Harry, did you know? Probably not. Suppose I should have noticed something, growing up with you, and all. But yeah, she's been accepted and...

Harry, I'll never be a part of your world. It's not me, and it's not my wife or my son. But my daughter is. I know we aren't exactly the most friendly of relatives, but I think my mum loved your mum. I think she really did give a damn, but couldn't show it.

I'm writing you this because I could never ask you in person, we're not close enough for that. But you're the only one I know of, relative or not, that is really a part of that world, and understands it. I'm asking you, please, if you can, watch out for my daughter while she's at that school. Please, just try and keep her from getting involved in the stuff you were fighting back then. I don't expect you to do it, but I'm asking you, not from a friend, not from a cousin; from one father to another, 'cause I'm sure you've got kids at this point.

Either way, my daughter and I will see you tomorrow on Platform 9 3/4.

Regards,  
Dudley Dursley

* * *


	2. The Platform

**FFFFFFFFFFFUCK ME. RIGHT as I went to save this damn document, I lost it.**

**Motherfucker.**

**Title: As the World Turns  
Rating: PG  
Summary: Harry Potter receives a letter from the last person he expected to hear from, the evening before Lily takes her first ride on the Hogwarts Express. (Might continue, dunno yet.)**

**

* * *

**

The Potter home was bustling, there were last-minute trunk checks, children stuffing their mouths with cereal, and Harry was desperately trying to both read the paper and talk to his wife about the letter he'd recieved the previous morning. Ginny made a last-ditch attempt to brush her daughter's wayward hair, while Albus and James fought over the last piece of toast, then they were all hurrying out the door towards the car.

Harry drained his coffee mug and sat it in the sink, ran a quick mental checklist, then dashed out the door; Lily was bouncing in her seat, nose buried in Quidditch Through the Ages, while James shoved his trunk into the charmed boot of their car.

First day of term was always a frantic affair.

"Harry, what is it you wanted to talk about?"

"This letter, from my cousin. Here," Harry handed his wife the letter, which she perused in the passenger's seat.

"Dudley? The git that picked on you all the time?"

"Dad got picked on? By who?" Albus' head poked up from the rear seat, looking curious.

Harry smiled. "Just some bullies, when I was your age. But Dudley wasn't so bad." Really, compared to many things Harry had faced in his teen years, living with Dudley Dursley had been a piece of cake. He was curious to see Dudley when they reached the station, but in the frantic rush from work, the kids, and packing them in the last twenty-four hours, he'd not had time to make his request to Lily.

"Y'think I ought to ask one of them?" He asked.

"Hm? If you want, up to them, though."

"Ask us whaaat?" Was the chorus that reached his ears from the back seat.

"We're going to meet my cousin at Platform Nine and Three Quarters. He's a muggle, but his daughter's been accepted at Hogwarts, I'd like it if one of you would watch out for her, a bit, make friends. M'sure she'll be a bit scared, coming from a muggle family to Hogwarts." Harry knew he had been, terrified even.

"She's just your age, Lily."

"I don't know... What if she doesn't like Quidditch, and can't play exploding snap?" Lily looked disgruntled. She was remarkably like Ron, in her mannerisms, though in appearance she was a remarkable blend of both Harry and Ginny. Her hair was the exact color of a fresh carrot, and refused to lie flat, as Harry's did, she was small for her age and peppered with freckles.

"I'm sure she doesn't know what they are, Lil, you can show her. Teach her all the games you like."

"Hm. What if she's a bully like Dad's cousin?" Lily was far too perceptive for her age. He often wondered if perhaps Hermione's child had been switched at birth with his.

"If she is, then don't bother, I suppose. But try and make nice, will you?"

"If Lily won't, I will, Dad."

"No you won't, James! I will! It'd be nice to start Hogwarts with a friend, and all." Lily smiled, and buried her nose in Quidditch Through the Ages. Harry leaned back in his seat as they pulled into the train station's lot.

Family was a funny thing, he thought.

* * *

Dudley had had a near panic attack when he skimmed through the Hogwarts letter again and found that to get to the platform, he had to run into a brick wall.

A bloody _brick_. _WALL_.

His daughter, Winnifred-though he often referred to her as Wendy-had found the concept novel.

"It'll be easy, dad, I bet it's just like that Peter Pan film! You have to believe to make it work," she'd said, clutching the cart rail in her hands.

"Hrmph," was all Dudley had said. But, nonetheless, together they started up at something of a run and dashed through, no crashing into, the wall onto a steam-filled platform bustling with people. The center of all the commotion was a scarlet steam engine, embossed in gold on the side with _Hogwarts Express_. Wendy bounced around where she stood, filled with awe and curiousity. Though Dudley was doing everything possible to prevent cardiac arrest, he smiled at the girl. She was a part of this, of the very thing he had feered through his teenage years.

It was later in life he realised he shouldn't have feared it; Harry had never sought him out for revenge, the Voldemort bloke had never come calling to his home in the middle of the night with intentions to kill, and no monsters had torn him limb from limb. But it still was not, nor ever would be, his world.

But it was Wendy's.

There went having a doctor for a daughter.

* * *

When Harry first spotted Dudley and his daughter, he had just rolled onto the platform with Lily. Dudley stood near the front of the train, speaking with the conductor with his chest puffed out and a bouncy young girl at his heels.

"This way, Lil. Dudley! Dudley Dursley!" Harry called, catching his cousin's attention.

Dudley had become what his father could have been had he laid off the sweets a bit, he still had very little neck and a beet-red face, but he was no longer the size of a killer whale and had even managed to accumulate a fair amount of muscle mass. His mustache rivalled his father's, and his hair was receding the tiniest of bits, though it remained the blond it had always been.

His daughter, on the other hand, was really quite adorable; she was quite short, but waifish and sweet. Her brown hair was tied back in french braids and her face was round, dotted with freckles and flushed with excitement. She had her father's eyes, but it was apparent she rather took after her mother.

"Daddy, daddy is that who you said we were going to meet?"

"Hrm? Oh, yeah. Harry." Dudley reached out his hand, and the two fathers shook hands with a tentative grip.

"Dudley, how are you these days?"

"Good, good... Is that one yours?" Dudley gestured to Lily, who smiled broadly.

"You're my uncle Dudley, aren't you? Dad's talked about you some, I'm Lily!"

Before Harry could correct his daughter that Dudley being HIS cousin also made him HER cousin, the little girl on Dudley's other side waved frantically. "I'm Wendy! If my daddy is your uncle, that means we're cousins,"

It was strange, Harry felt, standing before Dudley while their daughters stood next to their respective fathers. Especially since their children seemed pleased to meet each other. It was as if Harry was seeing what could have been, had he and Dudley been on good terms.

"You got my letter, then?"

"I did, and Lily said she'd look out for her while they're at Hogwarts, plus my oldest will look out for them as well," Harry gestured behind him at Ginny, Albus, and James, who were helping Alice Longbottom- who had unfortunately inherited the clumsiness of her father- shove her trunk into the train car. "After all, family look out for each other, yeah?" He'd said it without meaning to, it had just popped out because over the years, Harry had truly come to believe that; and like it or not, Dudley was his family.

For the first time ever in Harry Potter's prescense, Dudley Dursley's face split into a genuine smile that was neither sadistic nor malicious. It was a purely grateful, fatherly smile that was first directed at Harry, then Lily, and finally his daughter.


	3. Author's Note

**Just a quick author's note...**

**I continue to be amazed with the amount of interest shown in this story, it started as a oneshot letter I wrote in my creative writing class out of boredom. Yet here I've got people sending me messages and faving the story when there's really nothing substantial written. Since people seemed so interested, I do fully intend to keep up with this story; and I totally owe every single person who reviewed and fav'd it an apology for how long it's been since I started this thing.**

**Shortly after I wrote the second chapter, my schoolwork piled up, and I became very busy. I also have acting classes, auditions, and of course the usual teenage canoodling with my friends. I did take the reviews to heart, however, and after thinking it over, I've decided to actually turn this story into something more substantial than me bullshitting around with Dudley being a cutesy daddy. **

**The story is going to switch back and forth between the adults going through the year, and the children at Hogwarts. It's going to be a purely family-based fic, and it'll probably follow the Potter-Weasley group dealing with their newfound, horrifyingly muggle relatives; the Dursleys. Also be prepared for a couple of surprise guests. ;)**

**Anyway, I just wanted to apologise for how long this has been taking. Thankyou for your interest in this story, and if you give me a couple of weeks to get my computer resettled- (the bitch crashed last night) then I will start this puppy up and ready for a REAL story!**

**-Clocky**


End file.
